fI .' . . w t : : : :.:; ;o.:-ð. ..:ø , .i . ,);, :; i . . ". ., ." "{o ," r < . ;.:::. . : m.....-.:;. : . .=:::.:' :/ : ..:t;;:.:"(/ . .'4i<;-;-,' }..i ,"'<" '.,/ f ..,;.: t7l'. " II? a-., , " THE NEW ALBUM FEATURING YOU'RE THE ONE IN STORES OCTOBER 15 G PRODUCED BY JOHN PARISH AND TRACY CHAPMAN WWW.TRACYCHAPMAN.COM WWW.ELEKTRA.COM On Eiektra cOrnPëlå discs (G> 2002 Elektra Entertainment GrouJ:iln(:., Warner MusIc Group, An AOI. Time W-amer,Company. . 112 THE NEW YORKER, OCTOBER 14 & 21,2002 '-......, \ \ I ........... ....... ---- '.:: . some of those out at the streetside tables nursing coffees, smoking hand-rolled cig- ars, and fiercely talking politics in thick Cuban Spanish-are doing more than dreaming about the old days. In a town where radio is far more politically influ- ential than print or television, the largest outlet is Radio Mambí-a twenty-four- hour Spanish-language hard-line talk- radio station. Radio Mambí is run by an exile named Armando Pérez- Roura, who also hosts its most popular show. Pérez- Roura was Batistàs official radio spokesman in the fifties and is much feared in South Florida for his ability to deliver not only votes but also angry street protesters from among his faithful listeners. Pérez- Roura is in many ways a dinosaur-he has never learned Enghsh, and is not an American citizen-but he still manages to add a threatening tone to public discourse in Miami. Although he has been known to make anti-Semitic remarks on the air, his was the most powerfUl voice demanding, last year, that the Bushes stand behind Otto Reich. The Bush dynasty clearly respects Pérez-Roura's power. Jeb is a regular guest on his show, and, just days before the 2000 Presidential election, Pérez- Roura introduced George W. at a rally in Miami, invoking the name Elián Gonzales. He also went on to play a ,II / / . role in the Presidential ballot recount. Among those Americans not from Cuba who can be bothered to think about the embargo, it has become, according to polls, increasingly unpopular. People rea- son that it is not working, and that our hostility just allows Castro to hang on to power. For true believers in free trade, the embargo is, moreover, a here Charlene Barshefsky, the United States Trade Representative under Clinton, told the Boston Globe, as she was leaving office, that "our Cuba policy is lunacy." American farmers, looking for new ex- port markets, have turned against it, as have their representatives in Congress, most of whom are Republicans. And the agricultural and pharmaceutical inter- ests that want to see the embargo lifted have deeper pockets, ultimately, than even the South Florida Cubans. (In late September, a delegation of Midwestern politicians and businessmen went to Havana for an agricultural trade fair, and Otto Reich managed to offend every- one involved by warning the Americans, including Jesse Ventura, the governor of Minnesota, not to indulge in "sexual tourism" in Cuba. Ventura demanded an apology from the White House.) Legis- lation to relax the embargo has been passing in Congress by increasingly large margins. Still, President Bush, making